Ben and Jerry's Icecream

We had a nice visit to the Ben and Jerry's Factory in Warren, VT.

Rock Cookies Anyone?

After dropping off Gabriel we decided to visit the empty ski resort again, and bake some rock cookies.

School Adjustment

Gabriel seems to be adjusting pretty well to school. Today was rough because I misunderstood how the all school meeting would go and didn't say goodbye beforehand. They have an awesome program called seesaw, so I get pictures of what he is doing throughout the day. After school yesterday we made sandcastles at the school playground and Gabriel showed us how to ring the bell.

First Day of School

We dropped Gabriel off to kindergarten. He did so good, didn't even try to follow us out, or cry or anything. I didn't cry until we were driving away, but Sienna didn't let me for very long. "But mommy, you still have your girls!" She then admitted she missed him too.

Don't worry, I fixed it so it won't hurt his back. It was only 56 degrees out, so the jackets were necessary. 

Empty Ski Resort aka Awesome Playground

We live at a ski resort, which is a little odd for a family of people who have never been skiing. The kids and I had a blast checking out the abandoned place.

Tadpole observation #2

They were largely unchanged. Sienna said the tails were darker and not quite as wide. I noticed some extra bumps on the back where the tail begins. Also, she let me braid her hair! Eep!

Preparing for Kindergarten

I have felt so torn at this birthday. With Sienna and kindergarten I was planning on putting her in, but the further I got the more wrong it felt. With Gabriel I planned on keeping him home, and the closer I got that felt wrong. His school looks so great and his teacher is wonderful, but I am going to miss my emergency hug giver, my help fix the washing machine boy (which let the record show that Gabriel told me to wait till it was done draining from the hose to open the lint trap....but seriously we filled seven bowls full, how did I know it was going to flood the kitchen.), my sit and listen to me read the science text book smarty pants. So bitter sweet. Here are some pictures of us playing at the school playground.

 
And to lighten the mood here is Sienna's rain suit.

Restaurant Sienna: Step right up

This girl loves having extra drawers and space so she can change outfits every few hours. She also loved making all the kids pizza bread, and making the table beautiful. She also made them all scrambled eggs yesterday with supervision. She is blossoming in the excitement of having a kitchen, room, and outdoor play. 

Cake Pops!

It rained all day yesterday and mid-afternoon Sienna approached me to say, "Mom, I miss living in hotels." I had an activity planned just for such an occasion. It was delicious. I used this recipe https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/strawberry-cake/ I used the reduction for the frosting too, since our local store doesn't sell dried fruit and I didn't want to drive for 50min.

Sienna finds fuzzy caterpillars

Sienna is the ultimate caterpillar hunter and Gabriel is the king of caterpillar names. Here all three are cuddled over the first one we found near the pond. Bridget is taking a look don't touch approach.

 Meet lightning

 Meet lightning bolt

 And meet lightning thunder

While I was taking this picture Gabriel said, "Caterpillars and Butterflies like my shirt!" Back in Utah at the butterfly biosphere Gabriel had several butterflies land on him when he wore this shirt.

Sienna named this one fuzzy

 She decided to try putting fuzzy on their faces. She plugged her nose because he tried to crawl in. Gabriel freaked out and said, "Close your eyes too, you don't want him to crawl into your eye part!"

 This one also liked the red shirt